Skull Session: Urban Meyer Talks Ohio State's Monster Recruiting Class, Matt Miller Doesn't Think Justin Fields is a First-Round Lock, and Conferences May Start at Different Times

By Kevin Harrish on May 6, 2020 at 4:59 am
Tyreke Johnson is still here.
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Hey, one way or another, we're another day closer to college football.

Song of the Day: "Hit or Miss" by New Found Glory.

Word of the Day: Ardent.

 URBAN TALKS 'KROOTING. Ohio State's in the process of assembling an absolutely legendary recruiting class, and if there's anybody who knows about building monster classes, it's Urban Meyer. So he joined 247Sports to discuss.

​Meyer talked about quite few things, but here are the highlights:

  • "Mark Pantoni is the best in the business."
  • "It's a legendary class."
  • On recruiting rankings: "If they tell you they're not paying attention, they're probably not telling the truth." He went to the 247Sports site every day.
  • "As long as we're keeping score, we're going to try to win that thing," Meyer said of recruiting rankings.
  • Meyer said he's never chosen a player over someone else just because they're ranked higher, but he's absolutely seen someone on the rankings he wasn't aware about and recruited them afterwards.
  • On the name/image/likeness changes: "I think it's a good time to be walking from this point of view than knee-deep in it."

He was not asked about it, but Ryan Day has a legit shot to overtake his 2010 Florida class as the highest-rated recruiting class of all time in just his second full class as a head coach. Again, remember when we were worried there was going to be a dropoff in recruiting?

 WRONGNESS. I never imagined I'd be so passionate about a mock draft more than 11 months before the draft, but when someone's extremely wrong online, it's like a damn bat signal in my mind.

And folks, it's my solemn duty to report that someone is extremely wrong online.

NFL Draft seer Matt Miller has admittedly made quite a few correct prognostications in the past (including that Jeff Okudah would be a top five-pick like, two years in advance), but he just dropped what has to be some of the worst analysis I have ever seen on Justin Fields, who he says "shouldn't be seen as a first-round lock," ranking him No. 24 on his big board.

24. Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State

Justin Fields enters the 2020 season as a Heisman favorite and one of the most productive returning quarterbacks in college football. But like Trevor Lawrence before him, he has a bullseye on him from scouts and defensive coordinators alike.

Fields impresses with his touch and his toughness as a runner, but his decision-making and field vision don't stand out. His average arm strength also could be an issue if it doesn't increase in power, which can happen naturally as a player matures.

There's no doubt that Fields is good, but the transition from good college quarterback to good NFL prospect isn't always easy. He will require plenty of future evaluation before locking him in as a prospect.

Too many early-season watchlists are littered with Heisman finalists and big-time producers, but my early evaluation on Fields was not overly positive. There's 12 months for his stock to improve, but he shouldn't be seen as a first-round lock at this point of the predraft process.

Look, I know numbers aren't everything, but when your chief concern with a first-year starter who had literally the most impressive Touchdown/Interception ratio in college football history is his "decision-making and field vision," you're asking to be second-guessed.

"His arm strength could also be an issue." Buddy, his favorite throw is an out route that's impossible to make without elite arm strength.

He then goes on to suggest that the only reason he's even being considered as a high-level NFL Draft pick is that he's got hype as a Heisman finalist last season, as if people weren't talking about him as a future first-round pick when he was a junior in high school.

And the absolute best part is that qualifier at the end – "There's 12 months for his stock to improve" – so when he inevitably *is* a top-five pick, he can just say "I wasn't wrong, he just improved his draft stock!"

The reality is, he doesn't need to improve or prove shit. He could sit out the entire season (Justin,,,,,, please do not do this) and would probably still be a top-five pick in next year's draft. This analysis is just objectively incorrect and I'm heated in the middle of an offseason week.

 NOT ALL AT ONCE. It's looking more and more like we're going to get football this fall, but there's a solid chance it doesn't all start at once.

Hey, do what you gotta do. But I'm looking at you, Oregon.

 KEVIN WILSON, SPREAD PIONEER. When you think "Spread Offense," you probably don't immediately think "Kevin Wilson," but maybe you should, because he's right up there with all the other pioneers of the spread offense, as football-knower Bill Connelly points out.

 

He ain't wrong, and our very own Kyle Jones wrote an extensive Film Study on it about three years ago.

Kevin Wilson is honestly a coaching legend, and it's low-key hilarious that Ohio State just gets to quietly have him as a member of the offensive brain trust while all praise goes to Ryan Day and folks forget he even exists. But hey, I'll take it!

 WHAT THE HELL? Turns out, Michigan was dead before even taking the field this November.

You could reasonably expect a locker room to be fairly hype before a home game in the biggest rivalry in all of sports in a revenge game. I mean shit, even Brady Hoke's teams showed up in that department.

Instead, Michigan's locker room was cringier than the "Scott's Tots" episode of The Office.

Michigan might never win another game in this rivalry.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A 5-year-old boy was pulled over in Utah on his way to California to try to buy a Lamborghini... Alabama police are searching for an ‘aggressive chicken’ attacking people at ATMs... What happens when you add other drugs to your LSD trip?... Nearly $1 million is dumped on the side of road during a police chase... How Typhoid Mary left a trail of scandal and death... 

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